Week 25 & Poker Data/Coverage

Kevin hosted, I believe about 18 people showed up.  I walked in late after arriving earlier to bring the long table and buying in.  My wife and girls had gone to the Ke$ha concert.  They got free tickets and a backstage pass to meet Ke$ha and Pitbull.  Ke$ha is actually quite stunning and tall, based on the pictures.  Pitbull is a small dude.  My youngest, Starr, won a dance contest put on by the radio station and won a 43" flat screen tv because she got the highest score.  I mention all this to say that I had to pick up my son from work. I however, was not as lucky as my daughter, I finished 6th on the bubble allowing Blanchard to squeak in and place 5th to gain the tie with Partap.  What are you gonna do?  I had Ac4c and very short stack from under the gun.  Maybe I should of waited until Blanchard got blinded out after the round.  But, I wasn't getting any cards.  Hindsight, would of, should of, could of!  All mottos of poker. 

A Side Note

Patap had Blanchard convinced that they were testing players at the WSOP for performance enhancing drugs.  

More Poker

Louis showed up to not grace us with his presence, but he may have also taken it down.  Last, I saw he was pretty even with Chris heads-up.  Chris was hitting hands and had a big stack when he moved to the final table.  But, he was giving away chips quickly.  He did however take all of Partap's stack, when Partap moved all-in with the ducks and got called by Chris with A-K.  They were pretty close in chip stacks at that point.  Chris doubled up after a little thought and have a dominate chip stack.  After the break, I felt as though I was a car stuck in the mudd.  I couldn't get any traction or catch any hands.  I survived as long as I could, while I watched everyone else get busted out.  The final five were Blanchard, Louis, Chris, Judd, and Ryan.  I don't know what transpired after I left, since I was playing in the cash game and losing miserably as well.  Got in a hand with Blanchard and just knew that my hand was better pre-flop and that he managed two pair with Q-rag, but still called off $7 more dollars.  Also got unlucky for my last $8 against Josh as he was catching cards at the cash game, which made his appearance worth it.  He went all in on me with A-K, after I raised with pocket 5's.  I hit trips but with all hearts on the flop.  Josh had a K of hearts and of course the river was a heart.  That was all the poker I could stand for the night.  You all know what it's like, to know that you didn't play bad, but you were more unlucky than lucky.  Just like the last hand in the tourney with that Ac4c.  Louis called me with 9-10 and made a straight on the river.  He didn't even know he had won.  I was about to drag in the chips, just to see how long everyone would take to realize that Louis had made a straight.  

Poker Coverage

Partap emailed everyone saying that they only show the most interesting hands in poker coverage.  But, there are a few shows that show every hand.  Poker After Dark, which still airs all the old repeats with Leeanne Tweeden hosting, what a hottie!  Anyway, the last one was a $100,000 buy-in with a stacked 6 handed game of Dwan, Galfond, Ivey, Huckseed, Juanda, and Lindgren.  They show every hand, for a week long of just this one sit-n-go.  They also do other cash games and sit-n-go's.  

The only other, every hand aired play, is when the WSOP does live action on ESPN 1 & 2.  They air the November 9 with a 10 minute delay, showing hands only if a flop is seen of the players who played in the hand, not the folding hands.  ESPN along the WSOP has aired the Player's Championship live as well as the One Drop for $1,000,000 buy-in last year live, which Esfandari won.  They have also aired live the final two table, day 7 of the main event and played down to the November Nine.  So, if you want to watch coverage where you don't see the hands until the end, check out the WSOP website for dates of these tourneys.  They should be coming up real soon.  The WSOP is at even 36 and running right now.  The main event is scheduled to start on July 6.  They may air the One Drop again, which is schedule for the 26th of June and the Players Championship which is schedule to start June 30 a $50,000 buy-in with fields around 350. 

Data and Research

Jesse is acquiring data of hands played at a final table for his Masters in Statistics at NM Tech.  So, he is interested in getting complete data, which includes amount of raising and betting, of all hands played at a final table.  He is looking at cause and effect or relationships in betting.  So if anyone has any access to straight forward data like this let him or me know.  Other than that, I think watching these live events will be the best bet!   

Next week is the last week in the season!  We will be a Judd's place and some are still looking to make the final table.  So we will see you then!